1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic system consisting of cameras and printers, wherein the camera records photographic data on a recording medium, e.g. magnetic recording layer on photo filmstrip or a memory card or the like, in association with individual image frames, and the printer controls printing according to the photographic data.
2. Background Arts
In the conventional photographic system, granularity or graininess of a photo print is deteriorated as the degree of enlargement increases. This is because there is a limit in grain size or coarseness of grain on the silver-salt photo film. The same problem occurs in the digital cameras because of resolution limit of the imaging device such as a CD.
To provide a fine granularity large size photo print, a large size silver-salt camera or a digital camera with a high resolving power imaging device is necessary. In either case, the size of camera is inevitably enlarged. In those large size camera, it is difficult to reproduce high brightness images and low brightness images with high definition.
The conventional photographic system is not suitable for recording documents because characters are photographed and processed in the same way as other ordinary image frames, and all the frames are printed on photographic paper regardless of whether they includes characters or not. Therefore, the contrast and resolution of the characters are inadequate to read, and the photographic paper is not suitable for treating as the document in terms of surface material and size.
To achieve the above objects, a photographic system according to the present invention uses a camera having a fine photo mode. In the fine photo mode, a series of frames are photographed from the same scene, and the camera records data of correlation between the frames of the same series in a data recording medium. When a printer reads the correlation data from the data recording medium, the printer composes a high quality image from image data of the series of frames, and makes a print of the high quality image.
According to another photographic system of the present invention, a literal photo mode is provided for a scene containing a literal image. The camera records data representative of the literal photo mode in association with each frame taken in the literal photo mode. When a printer reads the data representative of the literal photo mode, the printer processes image data to improve the resolution and contrast of the literal image of the frame, and makes a hard copy of the literal image from the processed image data. Thus, the hard copy of the literal image has a sufficient quality enough for use as a document or letter.